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Thursday, 29 September 2016

Band on tour!

In the recent past, last Sunday to be precise I took on the epic journey of driving forty minutes down the road to sunny Hockley. To take part in the first (but not last hopefully) Bending fates run by Bendyboards with the ever gracious Wayland games as hosts.

And against all my better judgement (there's not a huge amount of that) I took the forever cool if just a bit poor (sounds like me) Crossroads Seven along.

As before all events, late to bed and early to rise seemed like a solid plan. First breakfast and a few cuppas and I was ready to go.

Drive down was uneventful apart from the car overheating but she's a tough old thing and I employed the tried and tested method of drive faster and ignore the problem which seemed to get me there in once piece.

Once there it was time for a second breakfast this one involving plenty of fried stuff, and another tea to keep me going.

Next up the classic stand in front of Wayland talking shit and shaking hands with everyone.

Next up we were in and registering which involved a lot of me say yes I'm taking the Crossroads Seven, yes really, no I didn't lose a bet, stop laughing it'll be fine, etc and so on.

Once registered and with the very nice gift of a measuring widget from Bendyboards I nipped off to grap a much needed tea then we were ready for game 1.

First game was against a charming fella called Gavin from Wales. (No I didn't "do the accent", I'm a grown adult I don't go around mimicking people's accent... Yes I really wanted to).

Great game of Ophelia vs Wrath in head hunter. I threw Greed and Pride in early in the hopes of giving him something to worry about while the rest of the crew got into position. This half worked, the rest of the crew got to roughly where I wanted them but Ophelia and friends didn't even pause while killing Greed and Pride and strolling on forward now with a few points for the heads in the bag.

The game carried on like this with me losing a couple of models a turn while scraping a few points together where I could.

Finished 10-6 to Gavin. Really fun game and I was happy with how I play despite the lack of VP.

Time for lunch!

Start of lunch I drop down my crew for the painting comp, this may have involved a display

board, yes I know I'm a wanker. (Still a bit gutted I never got a good look at the painting crews as I was too caught up chatting, fingers crossed there will be some pictures floating around of them soon)
Next a classic Wayland meal deal.
Chat about the first round with people, compare emotional scaring from the beatings we received then back to the fun.

Game two was against fellow Dark Sphere club mate Ross running his Gremlins. So Ulix v Wrath in Extraction. As always a fun if crazy game against Ross. Lots of carnage in the middle of the board with Pride trying to act as scheme runner up one flank (also this crew needs a leap or similar, on Pride or Greed would work great). This was a game of paper cut damage by me while pigs had a picnic on the bands guts and also on any scheme markers that I managed to drop. Ended up pulling five VP from the game, which took every resource and trick I had. Ross took the Win 10-5 and well deserved.

Quick dash for tea and to check how everyone else was getting on then straight into game three. The final and as chance would have it I was in line for a prize. The much coveted and desired wooden spoon awarded to the most generous gifter of tournament points. (the loser)

The final game was against the comedy legend, the happiest man in Malifaux Sir Matt of Spoons.
Matt was running Ramos v Wrath in Collect the bounty. (Did I mention my crew was all enforcers?)
Figuring I needed to put the pressure on early I threw Wrath forward and took out Johan start of round 2, I took out a few spiders as well. Then I got hit by a train! The rail golem killed whatever it looked at before Lust could push it into a corner for a turn. This just meant that Joss took over with the face smashing.
As you would expect from Matt it was an enjoyable game with plenty of swearing to keep things moving. Despite the score I honestly think I played it as well as I could, I forced some tough choices and got in strong positions I just didn't have the tools to finish the job, while Matt kept the pressure on each turn and made sure he scored his points. The game ended with a loss of 9-2 but both of us happy with how we played.

So that's it, there was some cheering as people won trophies that weren't as good as my spoon, If you want to know who they were check out the rankings as I will probably get the names wrong.

There was a raffle with cheering as well. Then it was time to thank the TO's Bendyboards and the hosts Wayland games. Then I just had to drive home, scrub the gamer stink off me, and maybe put the band in a little box at the back of my hobby cupboard for a while.

Thanks for reading (if anyone still is) next event should be Falldown II where I think I'll be back to running Molly maybe with a bit of Yan Lo thrown in for good measure.

The Band is great fun but not having a proper Master and the lack of fast scheme runners really hurts them.They're great for casual games but in a tournament it would take a better player than me (so most players) to do well with them